Animals are typically washed by hand, with a person manually applying water, shampoos, and other cleaning products such as conditioners to wash the animal. Hand washing is a labor intensive process that is slow and does not produce uniform results among animals. As a result, a variety of different types of devices have been developed to assist person in washing an animal. For example, some conventional systems utilize a recirculation pump positioned at a bottom of a tub in which an animal is bathed to assist a person in bathing the animal by mixing the water and shampoo or other cleaning product. In such a system, the shampoo or conditioner is poured into the tub along with water, and the pump is activated to combine the water and shampoo or conditioner and pump the combined mixture through a hose and onto the animal.
These types of recirculating systems typically reduce the amount of cleaning product utilized in washing an animal since product that flows off the animal is recirculated and once again placed on the animal. A recirculating system can make very efficient use of shampoo. For example, in a typical recirculating system at least 1.5 inches of water is required at the bottom of a tub to provide sufficient solution for cleaning. Shampoo is added to the standing water in the tub at the recommended rate of approximately ½ ounce per gallon of water. The interior of the tub must not be much larger than the dog being washed to achieve efficient shampoo usage.
Another potential drawback of a recirculating system is the “look and feel” of the dispensed shampoo solution. Although recirculating systems may clean effectively, there is very low sudsing and the cleaning solution lacks the slippery soapy feel that the most people equate with effective cleaning. Due to this factor, additional scrubbing with a rubber brush or hand massaging may not be desired. The primary method of cleaning in this type of system is to use the shampoo solution flow from the sprayer to wash debris from the coat. Some people, however, do not like these systems due to the fact that dirty water may be put back on the animal during the washing process. Furthermore, in such systems shampoo and other cleaning products must be manually dispensed, requiring a person to physically select shampoo containers, measure and dispense the desired products from such containers.
Another type of washing system uses water on a once-through basis. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a portion of a conventional non-recirculating washing system 100 that includes a siphon mixer 102 for injecting a desired shampoo into a water flow through a water containment assembly 104. The water containment assembly 104 includes an inlet portion 104a through which the water flows into the mixer 102, an outlet portion 104b through which a mixture of shampoo and water flows from the injector, and a bypass portion 104c that bypasses the injector to provide pure water during rinsing of the animal. The bypass portion 104c includes a bypass valve 106 that is turned on to bypass the mixer 102 and output pure water from the outlet portion 104b. The pure water from the bypass portion 104c or water-shampoo mixture from the outlet portion 104b flow through a flexible tube 108 and into a spray unit 110. A person (not shown) positions the spray unit 110 near an animal 112 being bathed to direct streams 114 of water or the water-shampoo mixture onto the animal 112.
The washing system 100 further includes a soaping system 116 having a number of shampoo containers 118a-118n, each shampoo container holding a different shampoo that may be selected by a person. Each shampoo container 118a-118n is coupled to a distribution manifold 120 that supplies the shampoo from a selected container to the mixer 102 in response to selection inputs 122. The selection inputs 122 may correspond to a knob that a person turns to one of multiple positions, and at each position of the knob the distribution manifold 120 couples a corresponding shampoo container 118a-118n to the mixer 102. Each of the shampoo containers 118 may receive pressurized air 119 to help the shampoo more easily flow from the container and through the distribution manifold 120 to the mixer 102, such as when the shampoo is very viscous. The selection inputs 122 are also applied to the bypass valve 106, and once again may correspond to a knob having a first position to turn off the valve and a second position to turn on the valve.
In operation, a person places the animal 112 to be bathed into a tub (not shown) near the system 100 and thereafter applies the selection inputs 122 to the distribution manifold 120 provide the desired shampoo from the containers 118 to the mixer 102. Initially, the person also applies the selection inputs 122 to the valve 106 to turn on the valve and thereby eliminating the siphoning action at the mixer 102 so that pure water is applied through the portions 104a-104c and 104a-104b, flexible tube 108, and spray unit 110 onto the animal 112. Once the animal 112 is wet, the person applies the selection inputs 122 to turn off the valve 106 so the pure water flows through the inlet portion 104a, through the mixer 102 to 104b. In response to this flow of water, sufficient differential pressure develops between points in the mixer 102 that causes the selected shampoo to be injected through the distribution manifold 120 and into the flow of water through the injector to thereby create a water-shampoo mixture.
This water-shampoo mixture flows through the outlet portion 104b, flexible tube 108 and spray unit 110 onto the animal 112. The person applies the desired amount of the water-shampoo mixture to the animal 112 and then physically massages the mixture into the animal's coat to wash the animal. Once the animal has been washed, the person once again applies the selection inputs 122 to turn on the bypass valve 106 so that pure water is sprayed from the spray unit 110 to rinse the animal 112. Note that when the bypass valve 106 is turned on, water flows from the inlet portion 104a through the bypass portion 104c and any water flow through the mixer 102 does not generate the required differential pressure to inject the selected shampoo. In this way, pure water flows from the outlet portion 104b to rinse the animal.
In the washing system 100, the mixer 102 mixes shampoo and water to develop the desired water-shampoo mixture to be sprayed onto the animal 112. The shampoo must be well mixed with the water to develop a consistent solution that uniformly cleans the animal. Some shampoos, such as more viscous shampoos, may be difficult to effectively mix with the mixer 102. The mixer 102 is a siphon mixer that uses the Venturi effect to induce a vacuum dependent upon differential pressure between the inlet and outlet of the mixer for the pickup or intake of shampoo. Some bathing systems use this type of passive siphon action to inject ambient air into the water-shampoo mixture to create additional bubbling. There are modified versions of the system 100 that include the addition of a passive siphon air injection system which can dispense a bubblier shampoo mixture than recirculating bathing systems. The mild increase in suds is in large part attributed to the higher concentration of shampoo used in most non-recirculating bathing systems. The primary benefit of this modest level of bubbling is cosmetic since even at very high shampoo concentrations most of the water-shampoo mixture in conventional non-recirculating systems quickly flows off the coat of the animal 112, and down the drain before the shampoo's full effectiveness is utilized. This problem is magnified when washing animals with short coats. Conventional bathing systems are not engineered to create the dense foamy lather that possess the required functional properties to readily adhere to a dog's coat and make efficient use of shampoo.
There is a need for an animal bathing system that uses water on a once-through basis that combine the best features of conventional recirculating and non-recirculating bathing systems without incorporating the potential drawbacks of each.